Top Ten Ways to Make Positive Lifestyle Changes

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Kathryn Dillon, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Do you want to make a positive lifestyle change—to eat healthier, exercise more, get out of a negative relationship or make any number of the positive lifestyle changes you’ve been telling yourself you want to make? Have you tried before—perhaps many times—without lasting success? Making lifestyles changes are hard, but possible if you have right intention, motivation, insight, planning and support.
Once you’re ready to make a change, the difficult part is committing and following through. A professional coach can help you create meaningful goals and hold you accountable for reaching them. However, there are some things that you can do alone, if you want, and maximize the likelihood of successfully reaching your goals. Here are 10 ways to make positive lifestyle changes, starting TODAY.
1. Set Goals that Inspire You
“Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not
know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
– Seneca
Think forward to one year from today: What would you like to achieve by then? Lose 20 pounds? Get a promotion? Take your family on the vacation of a lifetime? There is a scientific approach to goal-setting that we can all use to maximize our chances of success. Here are a few goal-setting tips that can help you get a fresh start in the New Year.
• Define Your Purpose. What is the biggest dream you have for your life—the one that if you don’t achieve it, you feel your life would have less meaning? That’s your purpose, the wind that will fill your sails when the going gets tough.
• Ask Yourself, “Why is this goal important?” What, if you accomplished this goal, would significantly change your life for the better? What would make a real difference? The key factor is that your goal excites you, it’s important to you and it aligns with your values, even if it is something your family or friends don’t care about.
• Set Challenging Goals That Involve Taking Risks. The things we pursue outside our comfort zone, and that involve trying to “master” something important to us, give us “authentic self-esteem.” The more we do this, the more we believe in ourselves.
2. Know and Draw on Your Key Character Strengths
“[Character strengths] are our true essence – the core parts of our
personality that account for us being our best selves.”
– Ryan Niemiec, Psy.D., Director of the VIA (Values in Action) Institute on Character.
Character research shows that knowing and applying know and using your strongest character strengths can increase life satisfaction and well-being. The VIA Institute created a personalized survey that has become the main research-based test of strengths in the world, measuring 24 character strengths, such as fairness, social intelligence, kindness, curiosity, love of learning, bravery, and humility.
You can take this free VIA survey by going to www.viacharacter.org. If you need help interpreting the results or finding how to maximize your strengths, your positive psychology coach can help!
3. Be Active
“I call (exercise) ‘Miracle-Gro for the brain.’ Exercise keeps these cells healthy in a way that even playing chess (and other highly cognitive activities) does not.”
– John Ratey, author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
Want to feel better, have more energy, lose weight and perhaps even live longer? Then get moving! The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are hard to ignore.
Check out these benefits of regular exercise:
• Helps prevent health conditions and diseases. Being active boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good,” cholesterol and decreases unhealthy triglycerides to help keep your blood flowing smoothly, which decreases your risk of cardiovascular diseases. It also can help you prevent or manage other health problems and concerns, including stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, arthritis and falls. Regular physical exercise can have a similar effect as some of the most powerful psychiatric medications in dealing with depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and other conditions.
• Improves mood. Need an emotional lift? Or need to blow off some steam after a stressful day? A workout at the gym or a brisk 30-minute walk can help. Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed.
• Boosts energy. Regular physical activity can improve your muscle strength and boost your endurance. Exercise delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you have more energy to go about your daily chores.
4. Discover the Power of Meditation or Quiet Reflection
“Suppose you read about a pill that you could take once a day to reduce anxiety and increase your contentment. Would you take it? Suppose further that the pill has a great variety of side effects, all of them good: increased self-esteem, empathy, and trust; it even improves memory. Suppose, finally, that the pill is all natural and costs nothing. Now would you take it?
The pill exists. It’s called meditation.”
– Jonathan Haidt from The Happiness Hypothesis
Meditation helps relieve our subjective levels of anxiety and depression, and improve attention, concentration, and overall psychological well-being. Everyone from news anchor Anderson Cooper and Congressman Tim Ryan to companies like Apple, Target, and Google are integrating meditation into their schedules.
Here are some ways to get started:
• The easiest way to begin meditating is by focusing on your breathing or focusing on a single word, such as “relax.” As a beginner, you might meditate for only a few minutes and then work up to longer durations. If you notice your mind wandering, simply observe your thoughts and let them go, returning to focus on breathing or the word you’ve chosen.
• Take a hike through nature and do a “walking meditation.” Leave your iPod at home and walk at a relaxed, fairly slow but normal pace. Pay attention to the sensations in your body as you walk. Notice the beauty around you and stay in the present moment.
• Find a meditation routine that works for you. There are many types of meditation: loving kindness meditation, mindfulness meditation, and transcendental meditation, just to name a few. You can find a teacher in your community or find meditations online (do a Google search).
 5. Build Social Connections
“The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.”
– Tony Robbins
Healthy relationships are a vital component of health and wellbeing. There is compelling evidence that strong relationships contribute to a long, healthy, and happy life. Conversely, the health risks from being alone or isolated in one’s life are comparable to the risks associated with cigarette smoking, blood pressure, and obesity. This seems to be true worldwide, according to a study by Gallup conducted in 139 countries. Individuals who say they have family and friends they can count on to help them in times of trouble are consistently more likely to be satisfied with their personal health.
Remember these tips when nurturing relationships:
• Build. Build a foundation of appreciation and respect. Focus on all the considerate things your friend or family member says and does. Make a point of noticing even small opportunities to say “thank you.”
• Explore. Explore each other’s interests so that you have a long list of things to enjoy together. Try new things together.
• Establish. Establish a pattern of apologizing if you make a mistake or hurt another person’s feelings. Saying “I’m sorry” may be hard in the moment, but it goes a long way towards healing a rift in a relationship and creates trust.
6. Practice Gratitude
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Melody Beattie
A regular practice of gratitude can have dramatic and lasting effects on our lives, such as increasing happiness and well-being, lowering blood pressure, improving immune function and fostering acts of helpfulness, generosity and cooperation. According to Robert Emmons, PhD and author of the bestseller Gratitude Works!, gratitude has one of the strongest links to mental health and satisfaction with life of any personality trait, even optimism, hope, or compassion. Grateful people experience more joy, enthusiasm, love, and optimism.
Here are some practices to start enjoying the benefits of gratitude:
• Keep a gratitude journal. Emmons’ research showed that simply keeping a gratitude journal—regularly writing brief reflections on moments for which we’re thankful—can significantly increase well-being and life satisfaction.
• Write a letter to of gratitude to someone who you never properly thanked. Write (and deliver—or not) to someone who had an impact on you whom you’ve never properly thanked.
• Start a gratitude jar. This is a fun exercise to do by yourself or with the whole family. Whenever you experience a moment of gratitude, write it on a piece of paper and put it in a jar. Once or twice a year, empty the jar and review everything you wrote.
7. Get a Good Night’s Sleep
“Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.”
– William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Americans’ sleep problems are so bad that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) refers to them as a “public health epidemic." Almost half the population doesn’t get enough sleep, and 40% of people sleep less than the recommended seven to nine hours a night (teens and children need even more). If starting the day rested and refreshed isn’t a good enough reason to sleep more, consider that is also can help you:
• Learn better. Adults who get enough sleep do better on tests of short-term memory.
• Boost metabolism and control your weight. Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.
• Support your cardiovascular health. Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.
• Stay healthy. Keep you healthier. Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Good sleep habits may also help fight cancer.
8. Learn Something New
“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
Learning new things is actually a core need for psychological wellbeing. Learning can help us build confidence and a sense of self-efficacy. It can also be a way of connecting with others too. Lifelong learning is not just about academic studies and formal qualifications. A fun thing to try might be a skills swap with a friend or neighbor – do they have knowledge you’d like to learn and vice versa? For example, could your neighbor who is a vegan chef help you to learn to cook healthy meals while you teach her about gardening? Or, how about taking advantage of the many free online courses offered by quality sources, such as Coursera (www.coursera.org) or Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org).
Here are just a few of the benefits of having an interest or hobby you enjoy.
• Clear Your Mind and Calm Your Body. Focusing on a hobby can help induce a relaxing, meditative state. You can experience “flow” or deep concentration by doing any number of activities, from reading a book, knitting, listening or playing music or painting a picture.
• Enhance Your Creativity. When your mind is focused on something you enjoy, you are much more likely to think creatively—and hobbies can open your mind to new possibilities.
• Explore New Social Opportunities. Hobbies can encourage you to interact with other people with a minimum of social anxiety, even if you are an introvert. For example, if you are in a knitting circle, you don’t even have to make eye contact. However, if you want more social interaction, many hobbies can be an avenue to meeting people and creating new relationships.
• Find Stress Relief. Hobbies can help us take a break from everything and calm down. Distract yourself in a positive way!
9. Eat Well
“Those who think they have no time for healthy eating,
will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”
– Modified from Edward Stanley (1826-1893) from The Conduct of Life
Making sure you follow a balanced diet can help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, but this is only one benefit. Those who follow a healthy, well-balanced diet reduce their risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And there are other benefits that you may not expect:
• Less stress. Omega-3 fatty acids protect against spikes in stress hormones, such as cortisol. Vitamin C has been shown to reduce these hormones while protecting the immune system. Magnesium, found in nuts and spinach, helps to keep stress at manageable levels.
• Improved mood. Carbohydrate-rich foods are associated with increased serotonin, which is a brain chemical linked to improved mood. Complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, are healthier choices because they will also stabilize blood sugar levels.
• Fewer cravings. Spikes and rapid drops in blood sugar can result in unhealthy food cravings. Complex carbohydrates and lean proteins help to stabilize blood sugar to prevent these rapid changes.
 
10. Get a Coach!
“I never cease to be amazed at the power of the coaching process to draw out the skills or talent that was previously hidden within an individual, and which invariably finds a way to solve a problem previously thought unsolvable.”
John Russell
A good coach will help you identify and focus on what’s most meaningful in your life and help you:
• Get clear about your goals. Your coach will help you determine what’s really important to you and help you stay focused on that.
• Identify your values and strengths. It’s important that your goals are consistent with your values and draw on your character strengths.
• Identify blind spots. Sometimes it is easier for a third party to see what you don’t—especially when it comes to what may be holding you back or where you sabotage yourself. Coaches help you figure out what you don’t know, and they clue you in to things you may not be able to see. They will be honest with you because they are not vested in any specific outcome.
• Be accountable. Coaches keep you on track and moving forward toward new levels of achievement. For many of us, having someone we answer to motivates us to act.
• Focus your development efforts. Coaches help you know the difference between weaknesses you need to fix and those that are best left as they are. This can help you invest time and energy only in the most fruitful opportunities.
Get started today by calling coach Kathryn Dillon at (336) 849-4045.